Rejection: A Writer's Life
Rejection number 421 came in the mail yesterday, but I don't feel too bad about it. Gerald Jones has over 14,000 rejections, and he's a self-proclaimed great writer. I'm something less. What do you do with your rejection letters? Wallpaper a room? Make them into expensive toilet paper? Burn them? Psychoanalyze every word? Post them? Someday, someday, the postman will bring something different. Until then, I'll do the only thing that matters in a writer's life. I write.
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5 comments:
When torn into narrow strips, rejection letters can be woven into attractive baskets. They also make excellent fodder for origami projects. Personally, I enjoy sailing them as paper airplanes out the window, which is probably a metaphor for my dashed hopes.
So you're the guy causing the pollution in the Cape Fear River basin. I'm keeping an eye on you.
- Detective Roger Stark
TFA found it useful to remember who was doing the rejecting--primarily secretaries, and ocassionally their bosses, twenty-somethings from Vassar. Keep networking and eventually you'll find an agent who will give your manuscript a real read--and a chance.
Austin...TFA sounds right. GAP coupons or tickets to a Timberlake concert should accompany the next round of queries.
That's the spirit! The more you write, the more you have as a portfolio for when the right agent comes along and is eager to dive in and rep all of your work. Then that'll show 'em! :-D
-Rae
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